Khartoum - (SUNA) The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Prof Ibrahim Ghandour, on Sunday received the visiting Under-Secretary-

General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, and the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Smail Chergui.
The AU and UN officials expressed appreciation for the efforts exerted by the government of Sudan, recalling in this the decision taken by the president of the Republic Omar Al Bashir to extend the ceasefire, unilaterally and the campaign Sudan led to collect unlicensed firearms which have resulted in positive outcome on the ground.
They also pointed to the government efforts to lure in the holdout groups to join the peace process in the Sudan.
The two guests briefed the minister on their assignment in the Sudan, related to the tripartite meeting held in Khartoum and the inspection of the work of the strategic review group for the UNAMID mission in Darfur, in the light of the UN Security Council Resolution 2363 and the outcome of the African Union meeting 691, June 2017.
On his part the Minister welcomed the two guests and the accompanying delegation, reaffirming Sudan's commitment to support the UNAMID and its redeployment efforts and its phased withdrawal in support of the normalization of the situation in Darfur which is now healing out of the rebellion and conflict stage
It is to be noted that the tripartite meeting was held in Khartoum on Sunday. The Sudan side to the meeting was led by the acting Undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Omar Siddiq while the UN and AU sides were headed by visiting UN and AU officials
In their official statement the tripartite meeting underlined the need to cooperate and coordinate efforts for the phased withdrawal from the areas covered in the first stage of the redeployment and that this cooperation should continue in the second phase set for coming June.
The meeting underlined the tangible improvement of the security and humanitarian situation in Darfur, a matter which encourages the continuation in the withdrawal strategy in the same way applied in the previous stages.